Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 1543 |
| AUTHOR: | Quintus Tullius Cicero (c. 102–43 |
| QUOTATION: | All men have a feeling, that they would rather you told them a civil lie than give them a point blank refusal…. If you make a promise, the thing is still uncertain, depends on a future day, and concerns but few people; but if you refuse you alienate people to a certainty and at once, and many people too. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | This work, also known as the “Handbook of Electioneering,” was addressed to Marcus Tullius Cicero, the author’s brother. Another translation of the passage is: “Human nature being what it is, all men prefer a false promise to a flat refusal. At the worst the man to whom you have lied may be angry. That risk, if you make a promise, is uncertain and deferred, and it affects only a few. But if you refuse you are sure to offend many, and that at once.”—H. J. Haskell, The New Deal in Old Rome, p. 169 (1939). |
| SUBJECTS: | Promises |